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I find the idea of blanketing mountainous wilderness in relatively short-lived e-waste just awful. Surely there are much better terrains for solar panels?
by SPICLK2 9mo ago
I find the idea of blanketing mountainous wilderness in relatively short-lived e-waste just awful. Surely there are much better terrains for solar panels?
- zemvpferreira 9mo agoYes let us wait for an optimal aesthetic solution for another 50 years while we choke on our own fumes. Plenty of time to rearrange the deck chairs.
- SPICLK2 9mo agoChina already has one (if we're insisting on solar power generation) - 700,000 sq. mi of desert. It's also not just aesthetic - flat terrain is just so much more practical.
- lm28469 9mo ago> flat terrain is just so much more practical. Outside of peak summer it's much more optimal to have a south facing slope actually.
- Koffiepoeder 9mo agoAdditionally, solar panels can become too hot and that reduces their efficiency. Also, deserts are famously known for dust. Since it rarely rains, you get a dust buildup, further compromising solar efficiency in deserts. I'm not saying that deserts are a bad place for solar. What I'm trying to say is - it's often worse than people think and it requires special infrastructure.
- barbazoo 9mo agoI love how they’re just building and building, adding more and more capacity and people here are arguing whether it’s in the right location. It’s laughable.
- ehhthing 9mo agoModern solar panels last around 30 years, so I wouldn't exactly call it "short-lived". Economically, I'm sure the locations chosen were optimal. You'd imagine that actual mountainous wilderness would be a much more expensive terrain to blanket with solar panels, compared to flat areas. If there were other choices, economically they'd better options.
- SPICLK2 9mo agoGiven the vast amount of flat, well-lit terrain within the borders of China, it should be clear that the pictured projects (and the other "blanket a mountain in solar panels" projects that are easily discoverable) are not about the economics of power generation.
- cyp0633 9mo agoAt least it's better than sending peasants into the mountains and building solar panels on the flat field that has been growing crops for thousands of years.
- blitzar 9mo agoBring back those big beautiful chimeys, burning their beautiful coal and blanketing us in the warm glorious embrace of soot and fly ash.
- budgefrankly 9mo agoIn this particular case I believe the mountain is largely karst (limestone) and the panels substantially reduced erosion -- particularly of soil -- leading to an increase in fauna that thrive in the shade. As others have said, it's hardly waste, it's an installation with a 30-year lifespan.
- lm28469 9mo agoStill much better and lower impact than whatever the fuck we'd been doing for the past 200 years